


the irrationality of jealousy (and its unpleasant consequences)

by wartransmission



Category: Free!
Genre: Future Fish Au, Jealousy, M/M, Oneshot, Rin being a little shit, haru pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-05
Updated: 2015-02-05
Packaged: 2018-03-10 16:16:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3296741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wartransmission/pseuds/wartransmission
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Other than that, everything else is…</p><p>fine.</p><p>It’s fine.</p><p>“You’ve got that thing, right Makoto? The hot firemen calendar thing?”</p><p>Okay, maybe not everything else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the irrationality of jealousy (and its unpleasant consequences)

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [these screencaps](https://twitter.com/jadedGalvanizer/status/552675062512226305), hahaha.

For all their differences in their occupations, they’re somehow- _somehow-_  always capable of finding the time to eat lunch together.

It’s strange. It’s almost as if they didn’t part in all the years they’d spent in different universities. Admittedly, it’s  _nice_  to feel like they never separated at all, but there has to be a limit to closeness when it comes to high school friends.

“Oh my  _god_ , Haru-chan, it’s  _sooo_  good! The beef steak- did you or the other chefs make this? Ahaha, that reminds me, Rei-chan tried something the other day-”

Okay. Honestly? The only reason he’s complaining about this at all is because Nagisa keeps chatting his ear away about  _Rei_  whenever he’s eating at his ( _his_ ) restaurant. He understands that some people feel the need to boast and talk about their loved ones often, but it's not like he  _doesn't_ see Rei himself to never hear his own stories. That, and he's pretty certain that Nagisa only does it because he knows it flusters Rei whenever he recalls any stories about him.

Other than that, everything else is…

fine.

It’s fine.

“You’ve got that thing, right Makoto? The hot firemen calendar thing?”

Okay, maybe not everything else.

Haru looks up just as Makoto does, though their expressions when they turn to Rin are vastly different. Makoto looks more flustered, embarrassed, his cheeks hinting at pink hues as he blinks through his cup of tea.

Haru looks (and feels) more like his eye is going to twitch its way into a glare.

A permanent one, maybe.

“Wh-what?” Makoto stutters, trying and failing to keep a poker face as he sets his cup of tea down back in its cup. His eye and lips do a weird twitch before smoothing over into an awkward smile, and Haru barely manages to hide one of his own at the sight of it. Makoto has never really been good at acting casual about anything.

Which is good. He doesn’t like the idea of Makoto being good at pretending and lying to him. That’s…it’s not a good thing. It’s a bad enough idea that it makes his chest twinge and his hands quiver with their support on the tray he's holding up.

“You _know_  what I’m talking about, Makoto. You can’t pretend that you don’t, Gou bought one for herself,” Rin points out, grinning with sharp teeth and a sly gleam in his eye- and really, Haru is trying his hardest not to accidentally drop the cakes because he worked hard on those (and he really doesn’t want to see Makoto’s disappointed look, no matter how much Makoto will say that it’s fine).

“It was for charity,” Makoto says weakly, setting his cup of tea down so he won’t accidentally drop it. Nervously, he fiddles with the hose hanging limply over his chair (why did he even  _have_  that?), turning his head low enough that Haru starts to feel the slow simmer of- of- something.

Annoyance, maybe. Not at Makoto, but at-

Rin, who is grinning widely up at Makoto.

“I think you missed your calling.”

_Splat._

He stares blankly, vaguely aware that Rei is beside him and gaping at the mess of cake in Rin’s hair, and folds his arms over each other once he’s set the trays down on Nagisa’s table. Makoto is staring too, not with disappointment but with palpable  _shock_ , and Nagisa…

Nagisa doesn’t even look like the mess matters. It looks a lot more like he’s curious as to what’s going to happen.

“Haru! What the hell?!” Rin yells, all sharp teeth and danger as he stands up from his chair with a clatter of plates and silver utensils. “What-”

“It was an accident,” he says while looking away, huffing under his breath when Makoto goes to Rin first instead of him.

“At least apologize!” Rin snaps, looking more and more pissed off when Haru looks back over at him with his arms still crossed over his chest. People like to say that this kind of body language meant he was trying to defend himself from someone (and by people he meant  _Rei_ ) but to him, it felt a little less a defense and more of “ _I am trying not to do something even more stupid that will make this worse and possibly make Makoto disappointed in me_ ”.

“Rin-san, we should calm down first-”

“Tell  _him_  to apologize!”

“Rin, really, I’m sure Haru didn’t mean to-”

“I’m not going to apologize for an  _accident.”_

“The hell you won’t!” Rin yells, punching his fist into his palm and cracking his knuckles in a way that would be intimidating, had it not been for the cake dripping white frosting down his hair.

Haru scoffs.

Nagisa keeps staring, a little like he wants to watch the fight proceed. (Typical.)

Makoto is taking on that whiny tone of his (“ _Haru,_ just apologize!”) with the hose around his arm ( _why?_ ) and Rei is behind him, trying to mediate even though he’s clearly failing at it, and-

“You complain too much.”

“Me?!” Rin snarls, brows furrowed and teeth bared as he gets into Haru’s space. “ _I’m_  complaining when all you have to do is-”

“ _Haru! Rin!_ ”

“-apologize, you-!”

“ _No_.”

“ _Haru_ ,” Makoto whines, face going a flushed pink with his brows furrowed and eyes squeezed shut as he waves his hands around as if it’ll stop anything. “Don’t fight!”

“We’re not fighting,” he says calmly, though his eyebrows are dangerously close to furrowing when he squints at Rin, “Rin is just being childish.”

“Childish-! You,” he trails off into a growl, before growing quiet with a blink of wide red eyes.

Haru raises an eyebrow.

“Oh.”

_Oh?_

“Oh,” Rin laughs, and Makoto and Rei look on in helpless bemusement while Nagisa stares in wonder, “ _Oh_. I get it now.”

“You get what?” Haru asks, annoyed as he regards Rin with furrowed brows and a frown. Much as he knows that he’s not as good as Makoto is at understanding other people, and as much as he knows that Rin is sort of strange anyway, that doesn’t mean he likes it when he doesn’t understand something.

He especially doesn’t like it when someone laughs in his face when he doesn’t even  _know_  the reason for it.

“You were irritated because I was talking about Makoto- about your _boyfriend_ -”

“Rin!” Makoto cries, scandalized, his cheeks growing redder in the face of Rin’s leer. “Th-that’s not-”

“No no, this is something  _real_  serious,” Rin laughs, grinning widely even when Haru glares hotly at him, “I’m- I can’t believe- Haru got pissed because I was talking about you posing in that calendar. That’s so- that’s so  _un-Haru._ ”

“ _Rin_ ,” Makoto hisses, looking utterly embarrassed as he gets in between them with a none too subtle hand over Haru’s wrist, “really!”

“Sheesh, calm down,” Rin scoffs, looking a lot less annoyed and a little more amused, “I’m not going to shout about it.” Then he grins, and Haru feels his heart squeeze in his chest because that grin can only mean _trouble._  “ _Anyway_ , since Haru doesn’t want to apologize, would you mind helping me out instead?”

“Huh?” Makoto blinks. Rin gestures to his head with a wave, smiles sweetly, and Makoto blinks with his mouth shaped in an ‘o’ before nodding in understanding.

_Oh, no._

“Makoto,” Haru says in a warning tone, flicking his hand up to tug at Makoto’s uniform sleeve.

“I’ll help Rin out,” Makoto says, smiling, though something in his eyes says  _I’m doing this because Haru wouldn’t apologize, so don’t complain._

He frowns.  _But-_

Makoto raises a questioning brow, almost as if to say,  _Really, Haru?_ Then he lowers his hand and squeezes Haru’s hand in his; Haru tries to stay irritated, he  _does_ , but he can’t. Rei offers to go ahead and get a towel or some tissues, saying, “It’s fine, Nagisa-kun and I will get something,” before leaving with a grinning Nagisa in tow.

He peeks up at Makoto, who smiles and offers a wave to a waving Nagisa, then looks back down at their hands. He really shouldn’t be affected this much. They’ve already spent most of their life with each other, and he should be used to this-

Makoto’s fingers linger in his palm, a light touch, and he smiles again before twining their fingers together.

Rin takes one look at him, one  _calculating_  look at his face, before bursting into a laugh. Apparently, there is something very entertaining about him scowling, though he fails to see what it is that's so funny about it.

But he'll let it pass, as he often does. There's no point in arguing when he has Makoto's hand clasped in his, anyway.


End file.
